Kirkus Reviews Book Blogger Networkhttps://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/author/sarah-hepola/Posts by Sarah Hepolaen-usSun, 02 Aug 2015 14:43:40 -0000Her Secrets, Her Shame, Her Recoveryhttps://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/her-secrets-her-shame-her-recovery/For some women, the day never gets better than when the cork eases out of the Chardonnay. Long gone are the days when a real lady wasn&rsquo;t &ldquo;supposed&rdquo; to drink. We live in an age of boozy book clubs and fizzy pink cocktails and the Facebook group &ldquo;OMG, I So Need a Glass of Wine or I&rsquo;m Gonna Sell My Kids.&rdquo; A 2010 Gallup poll found that two-thirds of women drink, a higher percentage than at any time in the past 25 years. And while women are more open about their excess than they&rsquo;ve ever been before, what they often hide is the extent of their problem&mdash;and the pain of it.https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/her-secrets-her-shame-her-recovery/Notes on a Crisishttps://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/notes-crisis/James Lasdun&rsquo;s life became hell when a former creative writing student launched a vicious, years-long attack on him via the Internet. His new memoir, <i><a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-lasdun/give-me-everything-you-have/">Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked</a></i>, is a gripping account of how a friendly correspondence turned corrosive, and how a woman he had intended to help tried to dismantle his very life. A gifted novelist and poet (his previous books include <i><a target="_self" href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-lasdun/the-horned-man/">The Horned Man</a></i>, <i><a target="_self" href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-lasdun/seven-lies/">Seven Lies</a></i> and <i><a target="_self" href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-lasdun/its-beginning-to-hurt/">It&rsquo;s Beginning to Hurt: Stories</a></i>), Lasdun offers a reminder of how vulnerable we are in an information age, and the power of language to both hurt and heal. He spoke on the phone from his home in upstate New York.&nbsp;https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/notes-crisis/